RE: Are you an XML scientist? Do you observe data in the wild andthen create models (XML grammars)?

From: cbullard@hiwaay.net

To: William Velasquez <wvelasquez@visiontecnologica.com>

Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2014 11:45:57 -0500

Not moi. I am quite mad. And relieved to be so.
len
Quoting William Velasquez <wvelasquez@visiontecnologica.com>:

Hi Roger,

I'm not scientific-enough to answer your questions, but I'll share a
few reasons why I think XML geeks here effectively are scientist:

- Those who advocates for the status quo tend to contradict us
- World could be a better place if they believe us
- Most of our ideas are just too high to be understood by the mere mortals
- Most of our ideas will be understood only after we die
- We spent all of our lives studying to be data-scientists
- Obtaining money is really hard for us, except for those lucky guys
that get a contract with the government

Finally:
- Most people think we are crazy
- Most of us look like mad scientists

1. IADS. The elements mapped to the frame roots and then to the
style sheet. Basically a single layer map with system-built
structures that determined the root and divs and let the styler do
the rest as the id structure was baked in: a system specific
application. Reuse by mapping
the content specific names be they para or brinyFish. IOW, best to speak
the local dialects and use the local names. Implementation in need
of language.

Has Objects. Wants data.

2. Book Metaphor: use abstract structures of input output process boxes.
Language in need of implementation. A property set looking for
people to pick the names of named names.

Transcription of exiting process models. Needs nothing. Does nothing.

3. MID 1 - abstract Microsoft GUI properties into a frame like
format. Tag the layer types as classes of widgets that have the most
common property set of the samples. A layer in need of a server.
OTW, an intermediate target for HTML transform. Like XUL and XAML
that follow, it is an idea that has merit in terms of things that
need to be declared, but deficit in that this battle was won by HTML
and none that have followed better the notion of basic gentagging:
language of implementation(s).

Has Classes. Want objects.

4. HumanML: research common discussions of human personality as
shaped by events in a system that has both memory and correlative
feedback given a
core character set that is chosen by history and location. A loosely
coupled property farm in need of filters and hookups. Objects with Pins.

Tags is classes. Needs objects. Wants events.

6. Ad hoc: when I need an easy transform target.

Bento boxes with sizes and named cargo. Has Data. Wants data.

In short, system at hand determines means and methods of analysis,
and if not implementation, then the question posed that initiates
the research will shape what is to be marked.

A physicist observes nature and then creates a model of what he observed.
The model often takes the form of a mathematical equation.

A linguist observes usage of a language and then creates a model of
what he observed. The model often takes the form of a context-free
grammar. This is nicely expressed by the following passage from a
wonderful book that I am
reading:

If we ignore enough detail we can
recognize an underlying context-free
structure in the sentences of a natural
language, for example, English:

So the physicist and the linguist behave in much the same way: they
observe nature and then model its laws/structure.

Here's another relevant passage from the book that I am reading:

Scenario: you observe a pattern in the
strings that you are dealing with. So you
create a grammar to describe the pattern.

Do you do this? Do you follow the same mode of behavior as the
physicist and the linguist when creating XML: do you observe streams
and collections of data in the wild, determine the data's inherent
structure, and then create a model (grammar) to reflect the
structure? How do you ensure that the XML you create reflects the
structure of the data? How do you determine the structure of data?
Would you share a story of how you observed, determined structure,
and then created a model (XML grammar) of the data?